2600k importance for multitasking/VMs?

[limitedaccess]

For gaming it seems the generalization is the 2600k will offer no real improvements over the 2500k, and the available benchmarks support this.

For graphics work (2d and 3d) from what I understand there is a 10-20% difference, and is shown by benchmarks. However I only do this on and off as a hobby.

The one factor however I have difficulty finding information on is multitasking and VM (started dabbling with these) advantages due to hyperthreading. I'm wondering if anyone with more experience can shed some details on this? For instances I've read anecdotal of things being "smoother" or being able to say encode while gaming, would these be actual advantages over the 2500k?

For instance in some of the following hypothetical circumstances -

-Watching a 1080p movie while playing a CPU limited game
-Multiclienting games (possibly in VMs)
-Running a server (that uses Database access) and playing a game
-Doing CPU work (rendering, encoding, photoshop, etc.) while gaming or watching a movie
-Running web clients with heavy flash usage while doing productivity/gaming
-Perhaps multiple combination scenarios of the above

 

[Falkentyne]

If you have the money, it's always best to go for the HT chip.
You never know when it will be useful, and the 2600k's tend to overclock higher.

It isn't like a HD 6950 vs 6970, when both chips seem to overclock about the same on the same voltage....